than one may be received, and no legal obligation imposed to accept the highest. Schedule given of advowsons saleable. Chancellor may require from incumbent a return of income and outgoings in five preceding years. Conditions of payment in whole or in half, with satisfactory security, s. 5. Any sum not exceeding half the purchase-money payable to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners in consideration of an annuity at the rate of 3 per cent.; such annuity to be applicable to the augmentation of the income of a living. Residue of purchase-money, with compound interest, to be applied by commission on next advowson to the augmentation of the living. Purchase-money paid into the bank may be applied in purchase of annuities or rent-charges, or parsonage houses may be built out of it, ss. 7, 8. When advowson has been purchased, the title made indefeasible. Any person or body of persons, corporate or uncorporate, may purchase advowsons, but must not hold more than four of them. Purchaser of an advowson not to resell until expiration of five years. Tenant in tail, or in fee, may purchase under limits, s. 23. Lord chancellor may apply purchase-money to augment livings in his gift; but no benefice to be augmented beyond £1000, nor to an annual value exceeding £1 for every four inhabitants within limits of the benefice, s. 26. Business under the act to be transacted by the chancellor's secretary of presentation. The chancellor not to incur personal liability in respect of proceedings.

III. EPISCOPAL AND CAPITULAR ESTATES.

For the improvement of episcopal and capitular estates in England, without prejudice to the interests of persons holding leases, facilities are given under 14 & 15 V. c. 104 (continued by 24 & 25 V. c. 131), for certain dealings between ecclesiastical corporations and their lessees.

By s. 1, any ecclesiastical corporation, with the approval in writing of the Church Estates Commissioners, may sell to any lessee under any lease granted by such corporation the reversion, estate, and interest of such corporation in all or any of the lands comprised in such lease, for such consideration, and in such manner, as such corporation and lessee may, with such approval, think fit; and it shall be lawful for such ecclesiastical corporation, with such approval, to enfranchise any copyhold held of any manor belonging to such corporation, or to exchange with any lessee under any lease granted by such corporation, all or any of the lands therein comprised, or the reversion, estate, and interest therein of such corporation, for any other lands, whether of freehold or copyhold, or for the estate and interest of such lessee in any other lands belonging to such corporation, and upon any such exchange either to receive or pay any money by way of equality of exchange; and it shall also be lawful for such corporation, with such approval, to purchase the estate and interest of any such lessee in any lands

belonging to such corporation or of any holder of copyhold land of any such manor: provided that where the estate or interest of any ecclesiastical corporation in any tithes or tithe rent charges, of any hereditaments allotted or assigned in lieu of tithes, is proposed to be sold or given in exchange by such ecclesiastical corporation der the powers of this act, the Church Estates Commissioners, before they approve such sale or exchange, shall bring the circumstances of the places in which such tithes arise under the notice of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners for England, and where the Ecclesiastical Commissioners shall so direct, the Church Estates Commissioners shall, as a condition of their approval of such sale or exchange, require such provision to be made in respect of the spiritual wants of such place out of the moneys to arise or the property to be taken under such sale or exchange as the Ecclesiastical Commissioners shall think fit.

By s. 2, upon the surrender to an ecclesiastical corporation of the interest of a lessee in a part only of the lands comprised in a lease, the Church Estates Commissioners, by a memorandum in writing, which may be indorsed on such lease, may apportion the rent reserved, and which part shall continue payable, and such apportioned part of the rent shall be payable as if the sum had been the rent originally reserved in respect of the lands not surrendered. The interests acquired by lessees under the act to be subject to the equities, and bound by the covenants of renewals, to which their leases may be subject. Leaseholders' interest not to be purchased without consent of sub-lessees, who have covenants of renewal. Confirmation of conveyances by Church Estates Commissioners to be a valid assurance, and no purchaser deriving title under such assurance to be concerned to inquire into the propriety or sufficiency of the consideration.

By 16 & 17 V. c. 35, a person preferred to a dignity in a cathedral or collegiate church between March, 1853, and January, 1855, is not entitled to compensation on its abolition.

The 23 & 24 V. c. 124 amends the acts relating to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, and the act concerning episcopal and capitular estates. After the passing of this act, s. 13 of 13 & 14 V. c. 94, which directs the mode of securing the annual income of archbishops and bishops, is repealed as respects future successions. Upon the first avoidance of a see, the lands of each see to vest in the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, for the purposes of the commission, and lands sufficient to afford the statutory income to be secured to each see. The remaining clauses are too diffuse and of too limited interest to be here noticed.

IV. CREATION OF NEW PARISHES.

The 6 & 7 V. c. 37, and the 7 & 8 V. c. 94, afford facilities for the subdivision of populous districts and for the formation thereout of separate and distinct parishes for all ecclesiastical purposes,

and also for the endowment and augmentation of poor livings. By these acts the Ecclesiastical Commissioners are empowered to borrow £600,000 of the governors of Queen Anne's Bounty on the security of the property accruing under the Cathedral Acts (3 & 4 V. c. 113, and 4 & 5 V. c. 39), to form districts for spiritual purposes in such populous parishes as are requisite, with the consent of the bishop of the diocese, to be permanently endowed to the amount of not less than £100 per annum, or to be increased to £150 upon the district becoming a new parish. The scheme for the formation of such district is to be submitted to her Majesty in council, giving previous notice of the same to the patron and incumbent of the parish; and a minister is then to be nominated, to be licensed by the bishop, who is to hold his office in the same manner as a perpetual curate, and may in such character receive any grant or endowment, notwithstanding the statutes of mortmain. A temporary place of worship may be licensed by the bishop, but this is not to prevent marriages or burials for the district in the mother church, nor to affect certain other rights. Upon a new church being consecrated, the district is to become a new parish, the minister to be a perpetual curate, and churchwardens are to be chosen and appointed; but this act is not to affect parochial rights or privileges otherwise than as expressly provided, and compensation may be awarded to the incumbent of any parish whose emoluments may be diminished by the operation of this act. The patronage of such new districts may be conferred, either in perpetuity or for one or more nominations, on any person contributing to the permanent endowment of the minister or towards providing a church or chapel for the use of the inhabitants, unless so assigned; the patronage is to be exercised alternately by the crown and by the bishop of the diocese.

By 19 & 20 V. c. 104, a district containing a church may become a new parish on being constituted a separate district by order in council. By s. 5, a right to a pew in the old parish church is not to be retained after the occupation of sittings in the church of the new parish. Pew rents may be taken according to a scale, and applied towards the repair of the church, and to providing an endowment. Upon the permanent endowment of any church or chapel, a proportionate number of sitttings to be declared free or pew rents to be reduced, s. 7. The 19 & 20 V. c. 50 enables parishioners, in certain parishes, and others, forming a numerous class, to sell advowsons held by or in trust for them, and to apply the proceeds in providing parsonage houses, augmenting small livings, and to other beneficial purposes.

IRISH CHURCH.-By 14 & 15 V. c. 71, upwards of forty statutes from 2 Car. c. 2, to 12 & 13 V. c. 99, relating to the Irish branch of the United Church, are repealed in order to their consolidation and amendment. The acts repealed mostly pertain to the building of ecclesiastical residences, the endowment, purchase, or exchange

SUBSCRIPTIONS AND DECLARATIONS BY THE CLERGY. 101

of glebe land to proprietary chapels, and the disappropriation of appropriate and impropriate parishes.

SUBSCRIPTIONS AND DECLARATIONS BY THE CLERGY.

The 28 & 29 V. c. 122 amends the law as to the subscriptions and declarations to be made and the oaths to be taken by the established clergy of England and Ireland. The following is the declaration of assent:-"I assent to the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion, and to the Book of Common Prayer and of the ordering of bishops, priests, and deacons. I believe the doctrine of the United Church of England and Ireland, as therein set forth, to be agreeable to the word of God; and in public prayer and administration of the sacraments I will use the form in the said book prescribed, and none other, except as ordered by lawful authority.'

Declaration against Simony.—“I, A. B., solemnly declare that I have not made, by myself or by any other person on my behalf, any payment, contract, or promise of any kind whatsoever which to the best of my knowledge or belief is simoniacal, touching or concerning the obtaining the preferment of

nor will I at any time hereafter perform or satisfy, in whole or in part, any such kind of payment, contract, or promise made by any other without my knowledge or consent."

Stipendiary Curate's Declaration.-"I A. B., incumbent of in the county of bona fide in the county of pounds as

undertake to pay to C.D. of

the annual sum of

a stipend for his services as curate; and I C. D. bona fide intend to receive the whole of the said stipend. And each of us the said A. B. and C. D. declares that no abatement is to be made out of the said stipend in respect of rent or consideration for the use of the glebe house; and that I A. B. undertake to pay the same, and I C.D. intend to receive the same, without any deduction or abatement whatsoever."

By 8. 4, every person about to be priest or deacon, before ordination to make the declaration of assent, and subscribe the oath of allegiance and supremacy. No other declaration or oaths than those required by the act to be enforced. By s. 10, declaration of assent to be substituted in case of other ecclesiastical dignity, benefice, or office. Oaths not to be administered during ordination or consecration services. Nothing to affect oath of canonical obedience to the bishops or the oath of due obedience to the archbishop taken by bishops on consecration. Annexed to the act is a schedule of acts or parts of acts repealed, from 28 Hen. 8, c. 15, to 1 & 2 V. c. 106.

The 28 & 29 V. c. 69 amends and renders more effectual the law for providing fit houses for the beneficed clergy and other purposes. By s. 1, corporations and persons under disability er incapacity are authorized to convey houses and lands for parsonages.

CHAPTER II.

Nobles and Commoners.

ALL degrees of nobility are derived from the queen, and she may institute what new title she pleases. Being conferred or created by the reigning sovereign, all degrees of nobility are not of equal antiquity. Those now in use in the United Kingdom are dukes, marquises, earls, viscounts, and barons, who constitute the peerage of the realm.

It is only the head of the family who has a proper title, though the junior members are usually considered noble. Those who are peers of England, or of the United Kingdom, have a seat in the House of Lords, which is transmitted by hereditary descent. Peers of Ireland and Scotland, who are not peers of England, can only sit in the Lords by election. It follows that there are two classes of nobles in the empire, those who inherit political power with their peerage titles, and those who do not, but are on the footing of commoners, like the younger branches of noble families, that have titles by courtesy.

The right of peerage seems to have been originally territorial, that is, annexed to lands, honours, castles, or manors, the proprie tors and possessors of which were allowed to be peers of the realm, and were summoned to parliament to do suit and service to the sovereign: when the land was alienated, the dignity passed with it as appendant; but when alienations grew frequent, the peerage was confined to the lineage of the party ennobled, and instead of territorial became personal.

A peer cannot lose his nobility except by death or attainder; though there is an instance in the reign of Edward IV. of the degradation of George Neville, Duke of Bedford, by act of parliament, on account of his poverty, which rendered him unable to support his dignity. It has been said, too, that if a baron waste his estate, so that he be not able to support his degree, the sovereign may degrade him; but it is now expressly held that a peer can be degraded only by act of parliament.

In treason, felony, and misprision of these offences, a nobleman must be tried by his peers; but in misdemeanors, as riots, libels, conspiracy, and perjury, a peer is tried like a commoner, by a jury.

Commoners consist of all those who are not peers, and, like the nobility, are graduated in ranks and degrees, as baronets and knights. Esquires and gentlemen, according to Sir Edward Coke, are mere titles of worship, not of dignity, and before whom the heralds rank all colonels, serjeants-at-law, and doctors in the three learned professions.

The rules of precedence in England may be reduced to the following table, which is founded on various statutes, grants by letters-patent, and established custom :—